1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a window mounted oscillating fan. The fan and louver assembly oscillates as a unit, rather than having the fan stationary and the louver only oscillate. In a preferred embodiment, the novel fan has two fan and louver assemblies mounted abreast. These assemblies are oscillated in tandem by one oscillating mechanism.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fans for ventilating of a room by air drawn from the outside have been proposed in the prior art. These fans are usually adapted to be placed in a window. For maximal effectiveness, fans may be provided with adjustable diffusers for directing discharged air in various directions.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,456,391, issued to Charles Davies on Dec. 14, 1948, is illustrative of this approach. The adjustable diffusers comprise a slatted drum surrounding two horizontally oriented squirrel cage blowers. The drum is rotatable to direct discharged air upwardly and downwardly. By contrast, the fan of the present invention varies the direction of air discharge throughout a horizontal plane. Also, the novel fan automatically oscillates, causing the direction of discharged air to sweep through an arc contained within the horizontal plane. The diffusers of Davies are fixed, and must be adjusted manually each time a new direction of discharge is desired.
Oscillation, or automatic adjustment of right to left air flow is featured in a forced air heater shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,739, issued to Arthur K. Takeishi on May 10, 1988. This is accomplished by adjustable diffusers. The fan remains in one orientation. The drawback to this arrangement is that as adjustment becomes more pronounced, and the diffuser blades assume increasing angle to the direction of air discharged by the fan, air pressure decreases. For effectiveness at maximal possible angles, the fan must have far more power than it would need at an unmodified angle of discharge. Therefore, the fan must be wastefully powerful, or else output at maximal angles may be inadequate. By contrast, the fan and diffuser adjust as a unit in the novel oscillating window fan. The diffuser blades are never at an angle to the direction of discharged air in the novel window fan, and thus the novel fan suffers little output losses due to obstruction of air flow.
As mentioned above, most air moving equipment has manually adjusted diffusers which remain at constant orientation until the next adjustment. Illustrative of this equipment are U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,395, issued to Germain Courchesne on Mar. 27, 1973, U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,537, issued to Millard Fillmore Harty, Jr., on Apr. 17, 1973, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,570, issued to Art K. Tateishi on Nov. 27, 1990. The novel fan differs from these examples of the prior art in that the fan blade and its diffuser remain in constant relative position, the two moving in tandem when angular adjustment is made. Also, angular adjustment is automatic and continuous.
Examples of mechanisms for translating oscillating motion are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,186, issued to Karlheinz Frank on Mar. 3, 1992, U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,585, issued to Tokihiko Yamamoto et al. on Feb. 22, 1994, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,247, issued to Koji Hatano on Jun. 20, 1995. Although these mechanisms could be adapted to provide oscillation in the present invention, they illustrate only motion translation mechanisms. There is no suggestion that they be employed in a device having fans and diffusers maintained in constant relative position, as occurs in the present invention.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.